Chapter 6 - Claire Wakes UpClaire woke to the smell of antiseptic and plastic tubing.
For one terrible second, she thought she was still inside the casket.
Her body panicked before her mind understood. Her hands jerked. The heart monitor screamed. Nurses rushed in. Someone called her name.
Then Noah appeared.
“Mom. Mom, it’s me. You’re out. You’re safe.”
Safe.
The word felt too big to believe.
Claire tried to speak, but her throat burned. Noah held ice chips to her lips.
“You saved me,” she whispered.
His face crumpled. “I almost didn’t.”
She lifted trembling fingers to his cheek. “You heard me.”
“Your voicemail.”
Her eyes filled. “I didn’t know if it sent.”
Detective Sloane entered quietly with permission from the nurse. She did not push at first. She waited until Claire’s breathing steadied.
“Claire,” she said gently, “do you remember what happened before you lost consciousness?”
Claire closed her eyes.
The memories came back in broken flashes.
Daniel in the kitchen.
Rain hitting the windows.
A porcelain cup with blue flowers.
The taste of lavender.
Too sweet.
Her phone on the counter.
Daniel smiling as she struggled to lift her hand.
“I found the transfers,” Claire whispered.
Noah leaned in. “What transfers?”
“My foundation. Money missing. Daniel said I misunderstood.”
Sloane took notes. “How much money?”
Claire’s eyes opened.
“Forty-eight million.”
Noah went still.
Claire’s literacy foundation had started small, with used books and after-school reading rooms. After her late husband’s estate and several wealthy donors joined, it became national. Claire trusted Daniel to help manage expansion.
That trust had nearly become her grave.
“He moved money through shell charities,” Claire said. “I kept copies.”
“Where?” Sloane asked.
Claire looked at Noah.
“The attic.”
Noah frowned. “Your house?”
“No.” Her voice dropped. “Your father’s cabin.”
Daniel had hated that cabin.
He called it sentimental junk.
Claire had never sold it.
Noah understood why now.
Sloane asked, “Does Daniel know?”
Claire swallowed.
“I don’t think so.”
A nurse checked the monitor. Claire looked toward the door, suddenly terrified.
“He’ll come.”
Noah shook his head. “Police are watching.”
Claire gripped his wrist with surprising strength.
“No, baby. You don’t understand.”
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Her eyes filled with a fear deeper than the coffin.
“Daniel doesn’t do anything alone.”
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